Best of the Best feted at Shell V-Power Autoworld COTY Awards 2011 dinner
Results of the Shell V-Power Autoworld Car of the Year Awards 2011 were announced last week at a grand award and presentation dinner held at Holiday Inn Kuala Lumpur Glenmarie attended by 200 representatives of car companies, partners, sponsors, and media. A total of 17 awards were up for grabs contested by 33 nominated cars that were on sale from November 2010 to October 2011.
Biggest winners of the night were Volkswagen, who swept home four awards, followed by three from Volvo. Honda bagged two prizes, while Perodua, Proton, Ford, Hyundai, Chevrolet, Toyota, Peugeot and Mazda all had one gong each. Five lucky winners also took home a limited edition Shell Ferrari key ring set each with a collection of six beautifully crafted model Ferrari key rings stored in a collector’s box.
Gracing the award was President of the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) Datuk Aishah Ahmad, was called on stage to present the final four award categories. Also attending the event was Tuan Haji Azman Ismail, Managing Director of Shell Malaysia Trading Sdn Bhd and Shell Timur Sdn Bhd. Other guests of honour included representatives from SME Magazine, KPMG, as well as members from the top management of Jobstreet Corporation Bhd (parent company of Autoworld.com.my) led by its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mark Chang.
In his speech, Mr Chang noted that similar to last year, “The results of these awards were reached by a consensus between scores given by our panel of judges and votes casted online from our readers.”
The aforementioned judging panel is largely retained from members of the previous year’s inaugural awards, and leading the way once again was Autoworld’s Editor, Mr Y.S. Khong, who served as the award’s Chief Judge for the second year running. This year, the team of judges took the nominated test cars on road tests to venues such as Belum Rainforest, Lumut, Tanjung Tualang, Malacca, and Ipoh.
At each test drive session, each judge is given the opportunity to drive every car and award them with appropriate scores on various criteria such as performance, space, comfort, price, and value-for-money. The judges’ scores are eventually added up and averaged out, but they do not decide the winners outright. In order to give its readers a say in the awards, a scoring mechanism was developed whereby 20% of the overall scoring awarded to the cars are based on online voting over a one-month period by Autoworld members through a specially developed microsite.
The online component of its scoring mechanism makes the Shell V-Power Autoworld Car of the Year Awards unique in being one that listens to its readers. The combination of scoring from judges and results of online voting means that the winning cars were chosen not arbitrarily, but as a consensus between both judges and readers. Echoing a trend from the previous year’s award, online voting proved decisive in settling the outcome of certain categories.
Star of the night was the Volkswagen Polo GTI, which bagged three awards on its own, winning the Best Premium Sub-Compact Passenger Car, Best Performance Car, and Judges’ Choice Award. Another unexpected star performer was the Volvo S80 T5, which not only beat the impressive Skoda Superb for Best Premium Mid-Sized Passenger Car, but also won the Autoworld Member’s Choice Award.
The Honda Insight had a productive night as well, taking home the Best Sub-Compact Passenger Car and Best Alternative Energy Vehicle titles. Returning to retain titles won by their predecessor models last year were the Perodua Myvi 1.3 and Toyota Hilux, named Best Super Compact Passenger Car and Best Pick-Up Truck respectively. The Hyundai Grand Starex Royale, having won last year’s Best Large MPV category, returns in a mildly updated form to take this year’s combined Best MPV category.
Now in its second year, the Shell V-Power Autoworld Car of the Year Awards strives to continuously improve and eventually establish itself among the most credible automotive awards in the country. The award received a massive boost this year with the backing of title sponsor Shell V-Power fuelling all of the test drive sessions by the judges. Diesel-powered test cars were, of course, fuelled by Shell Diesel.
The awards also received strong support from prominent partners such as the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) and KPMG as supporting organizations. SME Magazine was Official Media Partner along with Autogridz, Cars.My, Fastlane, On the Road, and Traction as supporting media partners. Full results of the awards can be viewed by clicking the link below.
